Voting rights group sues Georgia over election ballot postage

By Mike Dunston | CBS46 | April 20, 2020

ATLANTA, Ga. (CBS46) -- Due to the ongoing pandemic, a Georgia voting rights group predicts the number of mail in ballots will skyrocket for the election.

In an effort to make voting easier, the group wants a federal judge to force the Secretary of State to mail Georgia voters pre-paid postage envelopes for absentee ballots and applications.

The Georgia Secretary of State's office does pick up the tab to mail voting forms, but Cliff Albright, who’s the co-founder and executive director of Black Voters Matter Fund, says that's not good enough.

“Every registered voter should’ve received a ballot application as well as the regular ballot that has prepaid postage to mail off the applications and the ballots, without having to find a stamp. I’m somebody of some level of means and privilege, I haven’t had a stamp in my house since I don’t know when, and I don’t live in a rural community,” he said

In a 21-paged federal lawsuit the ACLU of Georgia is suing the state on behalf of Albright’s group writing in part :

“Many lower-income voters do not have postage stamps. They no longer need to use them or have never needed to use them. They cannot be expected to needlessly expose themselves to the pandemic just to get stamps in order to vote. Voters without Internet access or a credit card cannot buy stamps online, and if they do, they must unnecessarily purchase an unaffordable book of stamps."

Albright believes the state of Georgia can afford the prepaid postage.

“We believe that voting is enough of a priority and enough of a basic right that the state ought to be able to handle postage for its registered voters across the state,” he said.

The Georgia Secretary of State’s office had no comment on the lawsuit. A judge is scheduled to take up the case the morning of Friday April 24th.